Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Wednesday warned voters not to fall for promises by the Congress, which is making a desperate pitch to get to power in the state after having undermined development in Telangana for decades.
“The Congress and its chief ministers treated people of Telangana region like second-rate citizens for decades,” he said, and recalled how then chief minister of unified Andhra Pradesh N. Kiran Kumar Reddy declared in the Assembly that he will not give a single rupee to Telangana region.
“These Congress leaders now, then ministers and MLAs, did not even raise their voice in protest. Instead, they insulted me. Telangana state was not some gift that the Congress gave us. I fought for it, we fought for it for 15 years and achieved our goal, and in the process I almost went to the mouth of death,” Chandrashekar Rao said.
The BRS president, who addressed his party’s campaign public meetings in Jadcherla and Medchal, said all the hard work over the past 10 years would come to naught if the Congress comes to power.. “If the Congress comes to power,” Chandrashekar Rao warned, “all of this progress will be undone.”
At the Jadcherla meeting, he recalled how the then Congress government undermined irrigation for the Palamuru region by planning to get water from Jurala. “Congress chief ministers and MLAs had no courage to ask for water that was needed and said let us take from Jurala which has only around 9 to 10 TMC ft of water. I said we will take the water needed for the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme from Srisailam and not from Jurala,” he said.
“Even today, they say Jurala should be the source. And they filed court cases to delay PRLIS. But after nine years of hard work, we are getting all permissions and I recently inaugurated the project. Soon reservoirs like Karivena, Narlapur, Vattem, Uddhandapur and the tunnels will be ready and drought will disappear forever from Palamuru. At least 1.5 lakh acres in Jadcherla constituency alone will be irrigated,” he said.
“You are all witness to how we are progressing, from a situation where there was no water, no power, no irrigation to where we now have power, drinking water, and irrigation. We now grow three crore tonnes of paddy. The Palamuru region used to be dry and dusty those days. It has now turned green,” Chandrashekar Rao said.
He said while the progress of the past 10 years was on one side, the future is brighter. In our manifesto we promised we will construct one lakh more two bedroom houses for the poor in Hyderabad. “In Medchal constituency we spent Rs 350 crore. Medchal, Quthbullapur, and Uppal are like mini-Indias. People come from all parts of the country and we have decided to ensure that there will be a separate budget to ensure the needs of those coming here are met.”
“We achieved 99 per cent of our promises and after we return to power we will give fine rice to all white ration card holders, provide life insurance to all their families, increase pensions and Rythu Bandhu and we are going to set up gurukul schools for children from economically backward families among upper castes,” he said.
The Chief Minister said if the Congress comes to power in the state, all of the progress made so far will fall by the wayside and the state will return to the pre-2014 situation it was in before Telangana state was formed and called on people to vote for BRS candidates in the coming elections.
